Summer Furniture project - refurbish a mid-century stool seat

 It is that time of year where the kids swim just about every day so I figured I needed a project to work on while sitting on the patio watching them.  I am in need of some accent tables, a table for under my TV, a desk for the baby or a bookshelf, so I started searching the thrift stores & yard sales.  I didn't find anything that I need, but thought that this metal chair/stool combo thing looked interesting.
To tell the truth, I have no place for this chair in my home and pretty sure that my husband will hate it but I wanted this project anyway.  I think maybe once it is finished, I will try and sell it.  After some research, I discovered that they are currently making a reproduction of this same chair!

When I found that, I panicked a little thinking, 'oh shit, I bought just a dirty stool that isn't even old!' but I took a closer look and this one is indeed, a very old version.  Also through some online comparisons I found out that it won't be super valuable once refurbished, but as long as I don't spend too much time on it, I will be able to turn a slight profit.  Obviously this business is more of a hobby than a business.

 At least I get to work in comfortable clothes!

I took it apart completely in about an hour.  I spent another 2 hours scrubbing off rust.  I like to keep most things original, so I soaked the screws overnight in a vinegar bath to get the rust off.  Today, (or maybe tomorrow) I will be working on upholstery, paint and then the real challenge.... putting it back together correctly.

Craft Show displays made from Vintage Suitcases

Probably the place that you'll have the most vintage hard-shell suitcase sightings would be at a handmade crafts show.  Especially the indie ones! They are so handy for craft shows because they double as storage. You can store your crafts inside, carry them into the show, open up the case and boom.... display is done. (ok, so there is a little more work than that in setting up a craft show booth but still... you get what I mean)
The other day I was surfing around the web looking at suitcases when I came across this

http://pommes-frites.blogspot.com/2010/07/craft-fair-booth-display-vintage.html

Adorable right? I've bee using my vintage cases for my craft show displays for awhile, but I've been using just the plain case... as is.  Mine didn't have anything fancy, I just open it up, arrange my softies inside and sling my banner over the top, see... here's me

(above picture taken by Eric Bojanowski for the Sun-Sentinel article about Odd Duck)

But, I've got one case that I never used because it is HUGE and any softies that I prop up indie just don't fill the vertical space. So, I figured I'd get crafty.  I dug out the saw and managed to cut a piece of peg board the right size to fit inside.

I didn't permanently attach it because the interior if this case is pristine and I just couldn't bring myself to make permanent changes.  Surprisingly I was lucky enough to get the size of the board just right and it just sticks in there by itself held on by the interior trim! Honestly I don't know what I am going to use this for because I don't really sell anything that would be displayed hung from a peg board, but oh well... I am still proud of my handiwork.  Next I'll paint the peg board to match the suitcase and sometime between then and my next show... maybe I'll find a use for it.
Below is a picture of my kids trying it out to make sure it holds strong enough.  They were running around just hanging up anything they could find.  Here we have a pac man plush, a sugar skull plush, two aprons and a wii remote.

I found a seller on Etsy who makes and sells these sorts of vintage luggage display cases already made for you.  I also found several tutorials on how to make Vintage Luggage into craft show displays.

http://www.lynnminneydesigns.com/2011/07/12/tutorial-tuesday-vintage-suitcase-to-craft-show-display/
http://greenupgrader.com/15758/vintage-suitcase-craft-project/ 
http://leafytreetopspot.blogspot.com/2011/01/friday-finds-craft-show-display-ideas.html

If you are looking for a vintage suitcase to upcycle,  eBay is an easy way to find one without having to take repeated trips to the thrift store with your fingers crossed.

Red Vintage American Tourister "Ladies Hat and Shoe Case" Tiara

I'm such a dork

This is a picture of me on the day I got my most favorite suitcase in my collection.  I had been drooling over a round "Ladies Hat and Shoe case" one day on eBay and I shared the auction listing for it on my facebook page hoping that one of my relatives would think it was a great idea to buy it for me for Christmas. 

 

It was such a pretty case. It was white and had never been used so the bidding went up close to two hundred dollars! I didn't get that white case, but my friend Katrina from Eclectica Miami saw my post and told me she had a red one for sale.  I immediately told her I wanted it.  Red is my favorite color!  I was vending at the Indie Craft Bazaar that weekend so Katrina said she'd deliver it to me there.
As you can see from picture one to picture two, it has gotten dark outside and here I am, still prancing around with my suitcase. 

Other things to notice in these pics.... my hand crafts behind me Kitschy Aprons and Handmade by Shelley Faye (the softies nestled in that yellow vintage American Tourister!) I know... shameless.  Shameless self-promotion.

American Tourister Ad from the 1970s

Is missing a foot really that bad?

Even though I just bought one exactly like this last week, I'm drooling over this vintage American Tourister.  It is cheap too!  If it weren't missing a foot, I'd have already bid on it.  Check out how clean the insides are!  And I am loving the original papers. 

I'm gonna need to go and measure all of my tri-tapers now to figure out what their "official" names are.  One of my goals in writing this blog is to find out more about these treasures... not just contribute to my vintage suitcase hoard.

The first post

The first post is always the hardest. I am so excited about creating this blog and have so many things that I want to share but getting things organized and set up is the hard part. The next challenge will be sticking with it!
I'm not setting a lofty post-everyday sort of goal, nothing crazy like that, just want a place to gush about my new obsession.... Vintage hard-shell suitcases.
More specifically, American Touristers, but more than likely my fascination will expand to reach all the brands.
I guess I'll start at the beginning.
It was about 10 years ago when I was at my grandma's house being nosey and opening all the closets in the upstairs part of the house that no one used anymore.  There were three bedrooms up there but unlike modern homes, you couldn't stand completely upright in all the spaces and it has these really strange, short closets that follow the roof-line. I always loved to look through the stuff up there because my grandma was so stylish and had the neatest things.  Those rooms were barely ever used, so they tended to be the place where the stuff that no one used any more, but no one wanted to throw away ended up.
I discovered a hot pink Samsonite hard-case suitcase and fell in love.  I pulled it out and opened it to find another, smaller one inside.  How neat!  I was a full-grown adult at this time, mind you, but I'd never noticed how cool these things are before that day.  I grew up a military brat, so we traveled.  We always had suitcases.  Just never any suitcase that actually had enough character for me to take notice.  After having this epiphany, I realized that my own parents had been using a set of avocado green hard shell Samsonites just like this set forever!  All through my childhood and I never noticed!  I guess the color is why I never cared before.
Grandma's suitcases were HOT PINK.  That is awesome!  At some point in the last 10-years modern suitcases have begun to be more colorful again, but at around the turn of the century, it seemed that every suitcase you saw was solid black or a gray/black combo.  I just had to have this HOT PINK luggage!
I ran downstairs and asked if I could have it.  Because I only saw Grandma, maybe once a year or once every other year and I am number 12 of her 14 grandkids, she usually said yes when I asked her for things.  This time it took some begging.  *remember... full-grown adult at the time* She finally gave in and let me have the whole set.
Did I mention that the insides had polka dots? oh yes, polka dots.
I no longer have this set... another story... another time.  But I found some like them on eBay for a visual.

Photos credit: eBay seller 440slapstick